Builds on unprecedented investment through President Biden’s Unity Agenda to tackle the mental health crisis and support community-based behavioral health care and treatment.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), announced $206 million in grant awards towards youth mental health. Also today, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will make more Medicaid funding available for school-based health services in Virginia, improving health care access, including mental health services. Combined, these awards will help expand access to mental health services for students in schools, bolster the behavioral health workforce, and improve access to mental health prevention and treatment for children and youth in communities across the country. And they represent a key next step in President Biden’s Unity Agenda, which is making unprecedented investments to tackle the mental health crisis and transform how mental health is understood, accessed, treated, and integrated in and out of health care settings.

The investments include the following:

• SAMHSA is awarding $131.7 million in grant programs that connect youth and families to behavioral health services.
• HRSA is awarding $55 million to expand access to mental health care for young people, including access to mental health care in schools.
• ACF is awarding $20 million to improve the quality of mental health services provided to children involved in the child welfare system.
• New Medicaid funding – PDF that helps expand access to health services, including mental health services, for eligible children in schools. 

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE